Aitken, William B., Distinguished families in America descended from Wilhelmus Beekman and Jan Thomasse Van Dyke.

(New York and London :  The Knickerbocker Press,  1912.)

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2                    THE BEEKMAN FAMILY

always been large landowners, and their preference has
always been for a water view from their home estates,
whether it was on the Rhine; on the Hudson or East Rivers
of New York; or the Raritan or Millstone Rivers of New
Jersey. When the Princess of Portugal visited Holland
in the seventeenth century the Dutch government received
the permission of the Beekman family then residing at
Nijmegen to hold the reception in her honor at their house.

The name Beekman is from "beck," the Dutch for
"mouth," the English ''beak," or it may be an abbrevia¬
tion of "bekken," the Dutch word for basin. According to
Putnam's Historic New York, "Beekman or the man of the
brook; this interpretation of the name was recognized by
King James I. of England when he granted to the Rev.
Mr. Beekman, grandfather of William, as a coat of arms,
a rivulet running between roses." The crest is three feathers
on a helmet of steel represented in profile. The motto is:
Mens conscia Recti.

This coat of arms was used by the grandson Wilhelmus
Beekman in his correspondence with Governor Stuyvesant.

The children of Gerard Beekman and Agnes Stimning
his wife were:

I.    Harmon Beekman, died in 1654.

II.    Rev. John Beekman, died September 13, 1635.

III.    Catharine Beekman, died in 1624.

IV.    Margaretta  Beekman,   married   the  Rev.   N.   N.
Cnoetz.

V.    Hendrick Beekman, bom at Cologne, September 14,
1585, died at Wezel, December 2, 1642.

Hendrick Beekman, son of Gerard, was Secretary of the
city of Hasselden, Overyssel, and in 1629 he was appointed
by the States-General Superintendent of the Magazines in
the cities of Hasselt and Wezel. He was married three
times. He married first, Gertryd (Gertrude) Gomensbach
on April 15, 1613. She died September 10, 1619. They had
four children. His third wife was Alida Ottenbeek, born
at Cologne, December 8, 1605, who had no children. He
married his second wife,  Mary Baudertius, at Zutphen,
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